Application assisted band scanning method to reduce network acquisition time

ABSTRACT

A method of selecting a cellular network entails determining a current location of a mobile device by obtaining location data from an application on the mobile device, prioritizing cellular network frequency bands based on the current location to define a band priority, and selecting the cellular network based on the band priority. This method expedites selection of the cellular network when a mobile device is powered on, when its cellular radiofrequency transceiver is activated or when returning from an out-of-coverage area.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present technology relates generally to wireless communications and,in particular, to cellular network selection techniques.

BACKGROUND

When a cellular radiofrequency transceiver of a mobile device isactivated, the mobile device seeks to acquire a suitable wirelessnetwork in order to obtain voice and data services. Network selectionalgorithms enable the mobile device to find the optimal wireless networkunder various conditions.

In General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Universal MobileTelecommunication System (UMTS) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, apublic land mobile network (PLMN) list is normally used for the networkselection. The PLMN list contains a list of networks specifying a mobilecountry code (MCC) and mobile network code (MNC) with a priority order.The PLMN list combined with access technology are typically stored in asubscriber identity module (SIM) or a universal subscriber identitymodule (USIM) card. The mobile device scans all the channels withincellular band groups until a suitable cellular network is found.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further features and advantages of the present technology will becomeapparent from the following detailed description, taken in combinationwith the appended drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a depiction of a mobile device implementing the presenttechnology;

FIG. 2 is a depiction of a system implementing the present technology;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart outlining a method for selection of a cellularnetwork using location information from an application;

FIG. 4 is a depiction of a mobile device obtaining location informationfrom a calendar application;

FIG. 5 is a depiction of a mobile device obtaining location informationfrom a social media application;

FIG. 6 is a depiction of a mobile device obtaining location informationfrom a travel-booking application; and

FIG. 7 is a depiction of a mobile device obtaining location informationby monitoring e-mail messages.

It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings like features areidentified by like reference numerals.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

On activation of a cellular radiofrequency transceiver of a mobiledevice, it is desirable for the network selection algorithm to find theoptimal system quickly in order to prolong battery life and to provide agood user experience.

However, mobile devices today need to scan an ever-growing set of bandsand radio access technologies (RATs). Currently, LTE uses 11 bands, UMTSuses 7 bands and GSM uses 4 bands. This scan can take a significantamount of time to complete while also depleting the battery. A techniqueto assist cellular network selection to reduce acquisition time istherefore highly desirable.

The present technology provides a technique for efficiently selecting acellular network to reduce acquisition by using application locationdata already stored on the mobile device. The location data from thedevice application is then used to prioritize the cellular networkfrequency bands, thereby expediting the process of finding a desiredcellular network when the mobile device is powered on, when a cellularradiofrequency transceiver of the mobile device is activated or whenreturning from an out-of-coverage area.

Accordingly, one aspect of the present technology is a method ofselecting a cellular network. The method entails determining a currentlocation of a mobile device by obtaining location data from anapplication on the mobile device, prioritizing cellular networkfrequency bands based on the current location to define a band priority,and selecting the cellular network based on the band priority.

Another aspect of the present technology is a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium comprising instructions in code which whenloaded into a memory and executed by a processor of a mobile devicecause the mobile device to determine a current location by obtaininglocation data from an application on the mobile device, prioritizecellular network frequency bands based on the current location to definea band priority, and select a cellular network based on the bandpriority.

Another aspect of the present technology is a mobile device thatincludes a cellular radiofrequency transceiver, a memory that stores anapplication and location data for the application, and a processorcoupled to the memory and configured to determine a current location byobtaining the location data from the memory, prioritize cellular networkfrequency bands based on the current location to define a band priority,and select a cellular network based on the band priority.

The details and particulars of these aspects of the technology will nowbe described below, by way of example, with reference to the drawings.

In general, this technology may be implemented by a mobile device (i.e.,a mobile communications device or wireless communications device) havinga cellular radiofrequency transceiver as well as a memory storinglocation data for an application such as a calendar application, socialmedia application or travel-booking application. The mobile device usesthis location data to reorder (prioritize) its bands for moreefficiently searching for a cellular network, thereby reducingacquisition time and battery drain.

FIG. 1 is a depiction of a mobile device implementing the presenttechnology. This mobile device, which is generally designated byreference numeral 100, includes a processor 110 and memory 120, 130 forexecuting one or more applications. The memory may include flash memory120 and/or random access memory (RAM) 130. Other types or forms ofmemory may be used.

As depicted by way of example in FIG. 1, the mobile device 100 includesa user interface 140 for interacting with the mobile device and itsapplications. The user interface 140 may include one or moreinput/output devices, such as a display screen 150 (e.g. an LCD or LEDscreen or touch-sensitive display screen), and may optionally include akeyboard or keypad. The user interface may also include an optical jogpad and/or a thumbwheel, trackball, track pad or equivalent.

As depicted by way of example in FIG. 1, the mobile device 100 includesa cellular radiofrequency (RF) transceiver 170. The cellularradiofrequency transceiver 170 enables wireless communication with oneor more base stations over a cellular wireless network using cellularcommunication protocols and standards for both voice calls and packetdata transfer such as GSM, CDMA, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, LTE, etc.

The mobile device 100 may include a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)card 112 for GSM-type devices or a Re-Usable Identification Module(RUIM) card for CDMA-type devices. The RF transceiver 170 may includeseparate voice and data channels.

The mobile device 100 may also include one or more ports for wiredconnections, e.g. USB, HDMI, FireWire (IEEE 1394), etc.

The mobile device 100 optionally includes a speech-recognition subsystemthat has a microphone 180 for transforming voice input in the form ofsound waves into an electrical signal. Optionally, the mobile device 100may include a speaker 182 and/or an earphone jack.

The mobile device 100 may include a position-determining subsystem suchas a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, for example aGlobal Positioning System (GPS) receiver 190 (e.g. in the form of a chipor chipset) for receiving GNSS (e.g. GPS) radio signals transmitted fromone or more orbiting GNSS (e.g. GPS) satellites. Although the presentdisclosure refers expressly to the Global Positioning System, it shouldbe understood that this term and its abbreviation “GPS” are being usedexpansively to include any GNSS or satellite-based navigation-signalbroadcast system, and would therefore include other systems used aroundthe world including the Beidou (COMPASS) system being developed byChina, the multi-national Galileo system being developed by the EuropeanUnion, in collaboration with China, Israel, India, Morocco, Saudi Arabiaand South Korea, Russia's GLONASS system, India's proposed RegionalNavigational Satellite System (IRNSS), and Japan's proposed QZSSregional system.

The mobile device 100 optionally includes a Wi-Fi transceiver 192 forreceiving a Wi-Fi signal transmitted by a Wi-Fi access point, router,adapter or hotspot. Although Wi-Fi® is a registered trademark of theWi-Fi Alliance, it shall be identified simply as “Wi-Fi” in thisspecification.

The mobile device 100 optionally includes a Bluetooth® transceiver 194,and/or a near-field communications (NFC) chip. The mobile device 100 mayalso optionally include a transceiver for WiMax™ (IEEE 802.16), atransceiver for ZigBee® (IEEE 802.15.4-2003 or other wireless personalarea networks), an infrared transceiver or an ultra-widebandtransceiver.

Optionally, the mobile device may include other sensors like a digitalcompass 196 and/or accelerometer 198. Other sensors may include a tiltsensor, gyro or equivalent.

The mobile device 100 may be a wireless communications device, tablet,personal digital assistant, cell phone, smart phone, smart watch, smartaccessory, gaming device or any other portable electronic device thathas a cellular transceiver as well as a processor and memory thatexecute at least one application having location data.

In the embodiment depicted by way of example in FIG. 2, the mobiledevice 100 stores in memory one or more device-executable applicationssuch as a calendar application, social media application and travelapplication. Associated with each of these applications is a set ofapplication data in the form of data files. Within these files arelocation data that can be identified as such and retrieved by theprocessor of the mobile device. The mobile device uses this locationdata to determines its current location. The cellular network frequencybands are then reordered or prioritized based on the current location toreduce network acquisition time. In other words, regardless of thetechnique used to obtain or estimate the mobile device's location, themobile device uses the current location, however coarse, to reorder(prioritize) the cellular network frequency bands for more efficientsearching. In prioritizing the cellular network frequency bands, themobile device may create a set of prioritized bands or band priority.The set of prioritized bands may include all of the bands or a subset ofthe bands, if certain bands can be eliminated as being for othercontinents or other distant geographical regions. Once the desiredcellular network is identified, the mobile device 100 connects to thecellular network via a base transceiver station (BTS) 50, base stationcontroller (BSC) 60, Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 62, and GatewayGPRS Support Node (GGSN) 64. In an LTE implementation, the mobile deviceconnects via eNode B (base station) 66, mobility management entity (MME)68 and serving gateway (SGW) 69.

Using this band-prioritization technology the mobile device expeditesnetwork selection (i.e. reduces acquisition time) and prolongs thebattery life of the mobile device.

A network-selection method is outlined by way of example in FIG. 3. Asdepicted in the flowchart of FIG. 3, the method entails steps, acts oroperations of determining (300) a current location from an applicationon a mobile device, prioritizing (310) bands based on the currentlocation to define a band priority, and selecting (320) a cellularnetwork based on the band priority.

Each frequency band has an associated frequency range. For example, theRF transceiver chipset(s) of the mobile device may enable the mobiledevice to operate on one or more networks bands. For FD-LTE, these maybe bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 20 (i.e. on2100/1900/1800/1700/850/2600/900/700/700/800 MHz, respectively), HSPA+on bands 1, 2, 4, 5/6, 8 (i.e. 2100/1900/1700/850/900 MHz, respectively)and on quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz).

In one implementation, if scanning has already begun by the time thecurrent location is determined, the current band scan continues for theband being scanned but the remaining bands are reordered so as to searchlocal bands first. In another implementation, the device will search aPLMN list on activating a cellular radiofrequency transceiver andinterrupt a search of the PLMN list only when the mobile device hasdetermined the current location and the bands have been prioritized.

In this method, the mobile device exploits knowledge of its currentlocation to expedite the network selection upon powering on the device(“power on”) or on activating the cellular radio transceiver (“radioon”), which is especially useful when the user travels to a differentgeographic region. This technique will save device battery life andimprove the user experience. In another embodiment, the activation ofthe cellular RF transceiver may occur when deactivating “Airplane Mode”.In another embodiment, the activation of the cellular RF transceiver maybe in response to a signal received from a Bedside Mode application. Inanother embodiment, the activation of the cellular radiofrequencytransceiver may be in response to a signal received from a Child Modeapplication on the mobile device. In another embodiment, activation ofthe cellular radiofrequency transceiver may occur when the cellular RFtransceiver is disabled for roaming and then enabled.

FIG. 4 is a depiction of a mobile device 100 obtaining the location froma calendar application 400. An entry in a calendar application (i.e. anelectronic agenda or diary) for a meeting, appointment or event mayindicate a location of the meeting, appointment or event. This eventlocation may be used to determine the location of the mobile device forthe purposes of reordering the frequency bands. As shown by way ofexample in FIG. 4, the calendar application stores an event and alocation 410 such as a venue, address, or city, (e.g. New York City),etc. for the event. If the event day and event time correspond to thecurrent day and current time, the event location may be used as thecurrent location of the mobile device for the purposes of reordering thefrequency bands. The degree of correspondence between the event day andtime and the current day and time may vary to enable the device to usethe location of an imminent or upcoming event as an approximation forthe current location for the purposes of prioritizing the cellularnetwork frequency bands.

FIG. 5 is a depiction of a mobile device 100 obtaining the location froma social media or social networking application or service 500 such as,for example, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Hootsuite, Tumblr, Wordpress,MySpace, or other suitable application. Alternatively, the mobile devicemay employ a web browser application to access a web-based socialnetwork from which the location information may be determined. Posts,tweets, messages, or other content may be used by the mobile device todetermine where the mobile device is located. As shown by way ofexample, location data 510, 520 for the social media application isstored in memory of the mobile device. This location data is indicativeof the current location of the mobile device or of an upcomingdestination. The location data may specify a geographical entity such asa city 510, e.g. Paris, or it may specify a state, province, country,etc. Alternatively, the location data may specify a point of interest ora landmark, e.g. Eiffel Tower, from which the location may be determinedor inferred. As another example, the mobile device may use a socialmedia or social networking application or service such as Foursquare,Google+ or other suitable application or service to check-in to alocation, such as a point of interest, e.g. Charles de Gaulle Airport.As a further example, the mobile device may use a social media or socialnetworking application or service such as Facebook, Twitter, BlackBerryMessenger or other suitable application or service to post a status thatincludes location information, such as “Boarding my flight to Paris.” Asyet another example, the mobile device may use a social media or socialnetworking application or service such as Instagram, Flickr, YouTube,Vine, or other suitable application or service to upload a photo orvideo or other media and tag or otherwise specify a location of thephoto or video or other media.

FIG. 6 is a depiction of a mobile device obtaining location informationfrom a travel-booking application or a travel-management application orservice 600. Alternatively, the mobile device may employ a web browserapplication to access a web-based travel service from which the locationinformation may be determined. A travel-related application such as, forexample, BlackBerry® Travel™, TripAdvisor, Expedia, Hotwire, Orbitz,Priceline, Kayak, Travelocity, Urbanspoon, OpenTable, Yelp, Uber, aloyalty or points application (such as Air Miles), an airline or railapplication (such as United, American Airlines, Air Canada, BritishAirways, etc.), a travel guide application or other suitable applicationor web-based service may be consulted by the mobile device to determinethe location of the mobile device. In the example depicted in FIG. 6,the travel app 600 stores airline ticket information 610 and hotelreservations 620 both of which indicate to the mobile device that theuser is travelling to Paris from Montreal. As a further example, themobile device may use a social media or social networking application orservice such as OpenTable or other suitable application or service tomake a dinner reservation at L'Atelier Saint-Germain de Joel Robuchon onOct. 5, 2014 at 8:00 pm.

As a further example, the location information may be obtained from aweather application. The weather application may store a list of citiesfor which weather data is to be obtained. A recently added city maysuggest an upcoming destination. Obtaining and displaying the weatherfor a particular city in the weather application may also be used as anindication of the location.

As yet a further example, the location information may be obtained froma clock application. The clock application may store times for differentcities around the world. The device may detect that a particular cityhas been added or that the time zone has been selected for a given cityor destination.

As another example, the location information may be obtained by anentertainment or sports application, e.g. Ticketmaster, Live Nation,StubHub. The location of the venue of a concert or sports event forwhich tickets have been purchased may be used to determine the location.

FIG. 7 is a depiction of a mobile device obtaining location informationby monitoring textual content of messages sent and/or received by themobile device. These messages may include e-mail messages, peer-to-peermessages, data messages, voice messages, or any other type of messagessuch as, for example, short message service (SMS), multimedia messageservice (MMS), instant messaging (IM), BlackBerry Messenger (BBM),personal identification number (PIN) messages or the like. The contentof these messages may be parsed for travel-related content, e.g. namesof cities, countries, destinations, etc. As shown by way of example inFIG. 7, an inbox 700 of a messaging application comprising an e-mailapplication contains messages from various senders. In some embodiments,the inbox 700 may comprise a unified inbox that aggregates differenttypes of messages, such as any of the following: e-mail messages, textmessages, SMS messages, MMS messages, PIN messages, Instant Messages,voice messages, Facebook messages, Twitter direct messages, LinkedInmessages, and other messages. The mobile device may parse these messagesto search for locations or destinations. In this example, the mobiledevice identifies the destination “Punta Cana”. The mobile device thendetermines that an imminent destination will be Punta Cana in theDominican Republic. As another example, the mobile device may parse themessages for travel booking information, such as by parsing an e-mailmessage that includes an e-ticket for a flight or a flight itinerary. Aninstant messaging application or service may also be mined or monitoredto extract location information. Examples of instant messagingapplications and services include BBM, WhatsApp, Kik, Skype, FacebookMessenger, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, AIM (AOL Instant Messenger).For example, a user may post a BBM status as “Flight from Montreal toParis” from which the device may determine the location.

The location may also be obtained by monitoring web usage, i.e. byobserving user behavior with respect to a web browser, e.g. web sitesvisited, especially travel sites, search terms input into a searchengine, maps consulted, reviews consulted, reservations made, etc. Bymining or monitoring the web content rendered by the mobile device, themobile device may be able to determine the destination of the user ofthe mobile device which would therefore, in some cases, permit themobile device to reorder the bands based on the determined destinationof the mobile device.

It will be appreciated that the method is not restricted to cases wherethe device is powered on or the cellular radio is activated. This methodmay also apply to other cases, for example, when the mobile device isout of coverage for a long period of time and user may travel to adifferent geographic region during this period.

Any of the methods disclosed herein may be implemented in hardware,software, firmware or any combination thereof. Where implemented assoftware, the method steps, acts or operations may be programmed orcoded as computer-readable instructions and recorded electronically,magnetically or optically on a fixed, permanent, non-volatile ornon-transitory computer-readable medium, computer-readable memory,machine-readable memory or computer program product. In other words, thecomputer-readable memory or computer-readable medium comprisesinstructions in code which when loaded into a memory and executed on aprocessor of a computing device cause the computing device to performone or more of the foregoing method(s).

A computer-readable medium can be any means that contain, store,communicate, propagate or transport the program for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system, apparatus or device.The computer-readable medium may be electronic, magnetic, optical,electromagnetic, infrared or any semiconductor system or device. Forexample, computer executable code to perform the methods disclosedherein may be tangibly recorded on a computer-readable medium including,but not limited to, a floppy-disk, a CD-ROM, a DVD, RAM, ROM, EPROM,Flash Memory or any suitable memory card, etc. The method may also beimplemented in hardware. A hardware implementation might employ discretelogic circuits having logic gates for implementing logic functions ondata signals, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) havingappropriate combinational logic gates, a programmable gate array (PGA),a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the”include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.Thus, for example, reference to “a processor” includes reference to oneor more of such processors.

This invention has been described in terms of specific embodiments,implementations and configurations which are intended to be exemplaryonly. Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, having readthis disclosure, that many obvious variations, modifications andrefinements may be made without departing from the inventive concept(s)presented herein. The scope of the exclusive right sought by theApplicant(s) is therefore intended to be limited solely by the appendedclaims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of selecting a cellular network,the method comprising: scanning frequency bands according to a delimitorder; determining, at a mobile device, a current location of the mobiledevice by obtaining location data from messages sent to or from contactsof a user of the mobile device; prioritizing cellular network frequencybands based on the current location to define a band priority;responsive to the prioritizing being complete, interrupting thescanning; and resuming the scanning of the frequency bands according tothe band priority; wherein the determining comprises parsing text of themessages for place names.
 2. The method as claimed in claim 1 whereindetermining the current location is based on data from a social mediaapplication.
 3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein determining thecurrent location is based on data from a web browser application.
 4. Themethod as claimed in claim 1 wherein determining the current locationcomprises mining said messages for travel-related location data.
 5. Themethod as claimed in claim 1 wherein the determining of the currentlocation is performed in response to activating a cellularradiofrequency transceiver.
 6. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumcomprising instructions in code which when loaded into a memory andexecuted by a processor of a mobile device cause the mobile device to:scan frequency bands according to a default order; determine a currentlocation of the mobile device by obtaining location data from messagessent to or from contacts of a user of the mobile device; prioritizecellular network frequency bands based on the current location to definea band priority; responsive to the prioritizing being complete,interrupt the scanning; and resume the scanning of the frequency bandsaccording to the band priority; wherein the determining comprisesparsing text of the messages for place names.
 7. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium as claimed in claim 6 wherein the currentlocation is based on data from a social media application.
 8. Thecomputer-readable medium as claimed in claim 6 wherein the currentlocation is based on data from a web browser application.
 9. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 6 whereinthe mobile device determines the current location in response toactivating a cellular radiofrequency transceiver.
 10. A mobile devicecomprising: a cellular radiofrequency transceiver; a memory that storesan application and data for the application; and a processor coupled tothe memory and configured to: scan frequency bands according to adefault order; determine a current location of the mobile device byobtaining location data from contacts of a user of the mobile device;prioritize cellular network frequency bands to define a band priority;responsive to the prioritizing being complete, interrupt the scanning;resume the scanning of the frequency bands according to the bandpriority; wherein the determining comprises parsing text of the messagesfor place names.
 11. The mobile device as claimed in claim 10 whereinthe current location is based on data from a social media application.12. The mobile device as claimed in claim 10 wherein the currentlocation is based on travel-related location data mined from saidmessages.
 13. The mobile device as claimed in claim 10 wherein theprocessor determines the current location in response to activating thecellular radiofrequency transceiver.